Important

It was never in doubt. Vladimir Putin has easily won a fourth six-year term as Russia’s president, with state exit polls showing him with nearly 74 percent of the vote. That result cements his place in history as the Kremlin’s longest-serving leader after Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The outcome was even better than his 64-percent showing in 2012, but comes with a leading opposition candidate banned and reports of ballot-stuffing, an unsuccessful hacking attack on election authorities’ website and voters telling journalists their employers compelled them to cast ballots.

Six More Years

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe was fired Friday — two days short of full retirement — for allegedly misleading internal investigators about press leaks. He responded that President Donald Trump was undercutting former special counsel Robert Mueller’s independent investigation of Trump campaign Kremlin links. On Saturday, a Trump lawyer called for the probe’s end while reports emerged that McCabe had given Mueller notes of conversations with Trump. Those are believed to support allegations that the president obstructed justice in firing FBI Director James Comey, who tweeted that Americans “will hear my story very soon.”

Fired Up

It was “overwhelmingly likely” that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the nerve agent attack against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, said Britain’s foreign secretary last week. That sparked a tit-for-tat diplomatic battle that saw 23 diplomats expelled from each nation just as U.K. police probe another Russian exile’s strangulation death. The earlier attack left the two victims in critical condition. U.S. officials shared Britain’s concern, just as they imposed new Kremlin sanctions for 2016 election meddling and issued warnings on pervasive U.S. infrastructure hacking.

Story of the Week

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seemed to be the one person standing between President Donald Trump and canceling the 2015 pact to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Now Tillerson’s out, replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who’s consistently criticized what he called a “disastrous” deal, which he’s said he wants to kill. The situation is such that European allies and Iran reportedly expect Trump — who cited Tillerson’s support of the deal in firing him — to withdraw from the agreement and are planning for what comes next.

Done Deal?

Can they get money for nothing? As music streaming giant Spotify prepares to go public, its business model isn’t sounding pitch-perfect. Just weeks short of what may be the biggest entertainment IPO since Netflix in 2002, American copyright authorities, empowered by a 1909 law, massively increased songwriters’ royalty share. That’s thrown off the company’s revenue formula, although co-founder Daniel Ek doesn’t seem too concerned. While the service has yet to turn a profit, 60,000 new subscribers are signing up every day, and new products will be rolling out in the coming months.

Spotify Sings

The Week Ahead: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on a free speech challenge to a California law requiring anti-abortion pregnancy clinics to inform clients that affordable abortions are available elsewhere. On Thursday and Friday, a European Union summit plans to address U.S. metal tariffs. And immigration promises to be a sticking point again as Congress pushes up against Friday’s new federal budget deadline.

Know This:The remains of five victims were recovered Saturday from beneath a Florida bridge that collapsed Thursday — the same day authorities met to discuss a crack in the structure. Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army fighters have reportedly entered a Kurdish stronghold in central Afrin. And the New York Times reports that the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, credited with aiding President Trump’s election and suspended by Facebook for abusing user data, met with Russian oil executives interested in targeting U.S. voters.

Give Us the Scoop: What do you know and what do you want to discover? If you’ve got an idea for an awesome story, we’d love to hear it. Send your pitches to readerideas@ozy.com and our reporters and editors will run them down.

Briefly

Intriguing

It’s being called the greatest college basketball upset ever. The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a 5,000-to-1 longshot in Las Vegas betting parlors, beat the Virginia Cavaliers, 75-54, in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64 in Charlotte, N.C. Before Friday’s game, UMBC had trouble getting Marylanders to pay attention, much less the nation. No more. Beating a team widely expected to go all the way means the underdogs, whose mascot is the Chesapeake Bay Retriever, “should have a decent shot,” opines a local sportswriter, at beating No. 9 seed Kansas State today.

Inglorious Bustards

Each American discards an average of 82 pounds of clothing a year. That’s a waste, especially considering that only 10 percent of donated clothing is deemed fit for resale. But savvy Mexican entrepreneurs have cottoned on to the idea of picking up American castoffs to be sold south of the border. Mexico’s heavily protected textile industry is fuming, accusing the illegal operators, who smuggle their wares by the bag, “ant-style,” of undermining legitimate business. But for many of their countrymen, these are the only manufactured clothes they can afford.

Rags for Riches

Its sights are timeless. But the noises that permeate Istanbul’s bustling markets and thoroughfares are being muted. As the city develops, new infrastructure is paving over some of its most beloved sounds. So a team of field recordists are capturing that hubbub before the bulldozers bring a new din. Such recordings have become the basis for music inspired by the upheaval of Turkey’s politics, an archive of urban racket and an online sound-map of the city — so aficionados the world over can experience the richness of Istanbul’s streets.

Soundscapes

As pressing equality issues like the gender pay gap and sexual harassment come under unprecedented scrutiny, some women remain in the shadows. They’re employed as janitors, farmhands and domestic workers — often in precarious situations with few resources to combat rampant sexual assault and workplace violations. The rise of subcontracting has helped reduce both wages and accountability, particularly in cleaning jobs. Organizations like the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund help workers, often undocumented, file complaints but say that even progressive states like California must do more to protect them.

Suffering in Silence

Financial adviser Marty Blazer was in trouble: Facing federal fraud allegations, partly from misappropriating clients’ money to bankroll a horror film that tanked, he needed to keep prosecutors at bay. So he volunteered his services as a cooperating witness, exposing college basketball’s dirty deeds through detailing his payoffs to coaches for steering players into pro recruitment schemes. As March Madness begins, some observers of college basketball’s corruption hope Blazer can repay his debt to society by helping to clean up the game — perhaps inspiring a screenplay worth filming.